Mediocrity Quotes - Page 25

• Anyone in the humor business isn't thinking clearly if he doesn't surround himself with idea people. Otherwise, you settle for mediocrity - or you burn yourself out.

  Hank Ketcham

  Humor, Thinking, Ideas

  "'Dennis the Menace' creator dead at 81". www.cnn.com. June 3, 2001.

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• The bar is so low in rap - mediocrity is king!

  Jay Electronica

  Kings, Rap, Bars

  "Jay Electronica" by Matt Diehl, www.interviewmagazine.com. September 17, 2010.

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• Only mediocrities rise to the top in a system that won't tolerate wave making.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Wave, Tolerate

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• Mediocrity has a way of keeping demons from the door.

  Marie Arana

  Doors, Way, Demon

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• A fiery, good beginner always stands higher than a master in mediocrity.

  Robert Schumann

  Beginners, Masters, Higher

  Robert Schumann (1986). “Schumann: a self-portrait in his own words”

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• Solitude, the safeguard of mediocrity, is to genius, the stern friend, the cold, obscure shelter where moult the wings which will bear it farther than suns and stars.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Stars, Wings, Solitude

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Barbara L. Packer, Joseph Slater, Douglas Emory Wilson (2003). “The Conduct of Life”, p.83, Harvard University Press

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• It is difficult to preach, this morality of mediocrity! It may never admit what it is and what it wants! It must speak about restraint and worth and duty and love of one's neighbor.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  And Love, May, Want

  "Beyond Good and Evil". Book by Friedrich Nietzsche, I. Johnston trans., § 262, 1886.

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• The signature of mediocrity is chronic inconstancy. The signature of greatness is a disciplined and consistent focus on the right things.

  James C. Collins

  Greatness, Focus, Signatures

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• The goal is to avoid mediocrity by being prepared to try something and either failing miserably or triumphing grandly.

  Georges St-Pierre

  Mma, Goal, Trying

  Georges St-Pierre (2013). “The Way of the Fight”, p.7, Harper Collins

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• A mathematician of the first rank, Laplace quickly revealed himself as only a mediocre administrator; from his first work we saw that we had been deceived. Laplace saw no question from its true point of view; he sought subtleties everywhere; had only doubtful ideas, and finally carried the spirit of the infinitely small into administration.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Work, Math, Ideas

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• Mediocrity in poets has never been tolerated by either men, or gods, or booksellers.

  Horace

  Men, Poetry, Booksellers

  "Ars Poetica". Poem by Horace, Lines 372 - 373, c. 18 BC.

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• For I think it is the case with genius that it is not when quiescent so very much above mediocrity as the difference between the two might lead us to think, but that it has the power and privilege of rising from that level to a height utterly far from mediocrity: in other words that its greatness is that it can be so great.

  Gerard Manley Hopkins

  Greatness, Thinking, Two

  Gerard Manley Hopkins (1976). “Gerard Manley Hopkins: poetry and prose”

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• Private-equity and hedge-fund guys typically come into a situation of mediocrity, where rapid change may result in a profit.

  Austin Ligon

  Guy, May, Rapid Change

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• In the first manifesto that we launched on the 8th of March, 1910, from the stage of the Chiarella Theater in Turin,1 we expressed our deep-rooted disgust with, our proud contempt for, and our happy rebellion against vulgarity, mediocrity, the fanatical and snobbish worship of all that is old, attitudes which are suffocating Art in our Country.

  Umberto Boccioni

  Country, Art, Attitude

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• When we force a boy to be a mediocrity in a dozen subjects we destroy his standards, perhaps for life.

  C. S. Lewis

  Boys, Dozen, Force

  C. S. Lewis (1966). “Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life”, p.123, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Golf asks something of a man. It makes one loathe mediocrity. It seems to say, "If you are going to keep company with me, don't embarrass me.

  Gary Player

  Golf, Men, Company

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• Today we hear a great deal about Organizational Men, Mass Culture, Conformity, the Lonely Crowd, the Power Elite and its Conspiracy of Mediocrity. We forget that the very volume of this criticism is an indication that our society is still radically pluralistic. Not only are there plenty of exceptionalists who take exception to the stereotyping of the mass culture but that very string of epithets comes from a series of books that have been recent best-sellers, symptoms of a popular, living tradition of dissent from things as they are.

  Kenneth Rexroth

  Lonely, Book, Men

  "An Autobiographical Novel". Book by Kenneth Rexroth. Introduction, www.bopsecrets.org. 1991.

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• Economic analysis is the first principle of Marxism. Professors who were genuine leftists would have challenged the entire economics-driven machinery of American academe the wasteful multidepartmental structure, the divisive pedantry of overspecialization, the cronyism and sycophancy in recruitment and promotion, the boondoggling ostentation of pointless conferences, the exploitation of graduate students and part-time teachers, the subservience of faculty to overpaid administrators, the mediocrity and folly of the ruling cliques of the Modern Language Association.

  Camille Paglia

  Teacher, Association, Firsts

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Vamps & Tramps: New Essays”, p.19, Vintage

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• We mistrust anything that too strongly challenges our ideal of mediocrity.

  Robertson Davies

  Challenges, Mistrust, Ideals

  Robertson Davies (1999). “Happy Alchemy: On the Pleasures of Music and the Theatre”, Penguin Group USA

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• An artist would not rise above the mediocrity if he condemns it.

  Irving Stone

  Artist, Rise Above, Ifs

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• Mediocrity is the worst enemy of prosperity.

  Henry Ford

  Worst Enemy, Prosperity, Enemy

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• There is no greater consolation for mediocrity than that the genius is not immortal.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Genius, Immortal, Consolation

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (2015). “Maxims and Reflections”, p.111, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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• It's always the same: mediocrities are over-valued and great men are rejected.

  Anton Webern

  Men, Great Men, Rejected

  Anton Webern (1975). “The path to the new music”, European Amer Music Dist Corp

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• You have the army of mediocrities followed by the multitude of fools. As the mediocrities and the fools always form the immense majority, it is impossible for them to elect an intelligent government.

  Guy de Maupassant

  Army, Intelligent, Government

  Guy de Maupassant (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Guy de Maupassant (Illustrated)”, p.1129, Delphi Classics

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• To secure approval one must remain within the bounds of conventional mediocrity. Whatever lies beyond, whether it be greater insight and virtue, or greater stolidity and vice, is condemned. The noblest men, like the worst criminals, have been done to death.

  John Lancaster Spalding

  Lying, Men, Vices

  John Lancaster Spalding (1901). “Aphorisms and Reflections: Conduct, Culture and Religion”

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